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Helmholtz Centers

The research focus of HEIBRiDS exploits the primary expertise of the participating members representing different domains and scientific disciplines. The Helmholtz centers have first-class researchers from the domains medicine, transportation, earth sciences and, climate at their disposal. Participating Helmholtz Cetners in the HEIBRiDS program are:

Max-Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC)MDC aims to understand basic biological processes thatare relevant for diseases and contributes research to the areas of cardiovascular & metabolic disease, cancerresearch, diseases of the nervous system, and medical systems biology. It is committed to translating scientificknowledge into improvements in clinical practice, and has expanded its translational research activities withinthe Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), a joint venture with the Charité. By integrating high-throughput technologies,mathematics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, biochemistry and engineering to derive predictive, quantitativemodels for biological systems, the MDC will advance emerging concepts of personalized medicine.

Alfred Wegener Institute for Marine and Polar Research (AWI)AWI contributes to theresearch field Earth and Environment. The AWI unit in Potsdam mainly deals with polar atmosphericprocesses, permafrost dynamics, and modern and past changes in Arctic terrestrial ecology. All thesestudies yield big sets of observational, analytical and remote-sensing data, which need to be handled withinnovative tools of data mining, provided in the synergetic HEIBRiDS project.

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)DESY is active in the Helmholtz research area ‘Matter’ in all programs, ‘Matter and Universe’ (MU), ‘FromMatter to Materials and Life’ (MML), and ‘Matter and Technology’ (MT). The DESY site in Zeuthen in particularis active in particle physics (MU) and accelerator science (MT) and has evolved into a leading center for astroparticlephysics (MU), with major activities in gamma-ray astronomy (H.E.S.S., MAGIC, VERITAS, Fermi andCTA) and neutrino astronomy (IceCube). It has a sizable computing center and well-trained staff to design,build and operate advanced equipment and computing systems, covering all aspects of modern informationtechnologies.

German Aerospace Center (DLR)DLRin Berlin is active in the fields of space research, planetary research, Earth observationand transport. Data science is relevant for all of these fields: optical sensors on spacecrafts produceenormous amounts of data at an extremely high rate. The same holds for sensors used for various mobilityapplications. The data produced by these sensors need to be analyzed and relevant information needs to beextracted. HEIBRiDS will contribute to the solution of these challenges by training young researchers.

German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)GFZ is the national research centre for Earth sciences in Germany.Research at the GFZ focuses on the geosphere within the highly complex System Earth with its furthersubsystems, its interacting subcycles, and its wide network of cause-and-effect chains. This GFZ scientists workin a close interdisciplinary collaboration with the related scientific disciplines physics, mathematics, chemistry,and biology as well as with the rock mechanics, engineering hydrologyand seismology disciplines. The mission is to assess and understand relevant physical, chemical, and biological processes withinthe geosphere and to predict future developments. Research at the GFZ integrates methods of Earth observationwith laboratory- and field-experiments, as well as with modelling approaches.

Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB) HZB contributes to the energy materials researchand the operation of the international user facility BESSY II, being upgraded to BESSY VSR in the coming years. Data science plays an increasing role in the HZB´s research portfolio due to the 24h operation and data generation of such a multi-user infrastructure, which will strongly benefit from data scientistsbeing able to develop new and adaptive digital methods as well as algorithms in the fields of spectroscopy,tomography and simulations. In the energy field HZB is partner in two Helmholtz Future Research Themes:1) Energy System Integration and 2) Perovskite Based Solar Energy Conversion. In the first theme digitalization willbe a necessary prerequisite to design a future energy supply system based on fluctuating renewable energysources. Multiscale insight is required to evaluate and predict the potential of new technologies in a systemsperspective. Combinatorial and computational materials design are routes to contribute to the second FutureResearch Theme, which will strongly benefit from HEIBRiDS.